Originally Posted by Mutt

Robbie when he's not posting libertarian crackpottery sometimes posts good information. He explained this same thing recently - something I really wasn't aware of. I've been hearing about this outrageous 100 dollar charges for aspirins type propaganda for decades and accepted it.

Anybody who isn't for giving the entire healthcare industry a giant enema is an idiot.

As far as the two parties being the same, this gets parroted on internet forum and news websites a thousand times a day. It's not true, it's the American political system that forces the two parties to negotiate everthing in a spirit of extreme bitterness that leads to both parties ending up doing things that they really don't stand for. IF the US was a parliamentary system where the party that wins the most seats in the legislature becomes the government and is pretty much unchecked in power for 5 years - Obama would have a single payer system and whatever else is in his socialist agenda. And the Republicans should they win a majority would do the same. More would get accomplished.
The problem is that once you give people something it's very hard if not impossible to take it away. So the Republicans couldn't get back into power and just blow up the single payer healthcare system.